Neapolitan Italian · Dinner
Pizza margherita
A home-oven Margherita with a fermented, hand-stretched crust and the protected topping balance of tomato, mozzarella, basil, and olive oil.
Equipment
- A sound steel or stone works; give it the full preheat and allow for slower stone browning.
Ingredients
1× recipe · Makes 2 10-inch pizzas
- 3 1/3 cups Italian 00 or bread flour, 400 grams
- 1 1/8 cups water, 260 grams, at 75°F
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt, 10 grams
- 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast, 0.8 gram
- Fine semolina or flour, for launching
- 3/4 cup canned whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand and drained of loose juice
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 7 ounces fresh fior di latte mozzarella, cut into strips and drained 2 hours
- 12 fresh basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
Mix flour, water, yeast, and 10 grams salt until no dry flour remains. Rest 20 minutes, then knead 5 minutes until smooth. Cover and ferment at about 70°F for 12 to 18 hours, until expanded and aromatic but not collapsed.
Divide into two 335-gram balls, pinch seams closed, cover, and proof 2 hours. Put a on an upper-middle rack and heat the oven at its maximum, ideally 550°F, for a full hour.
Mix drained tomatoes with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. On a semolina-dusted surface, press one dough ball from the center outward, leaving a 3/4-inch rim, then stretch by hand to 10 inches without a rolling pin.
Top lightly with half the tomato, mozzarella, basil, and oil, keeping the rim bare. Launch onto the steel and bake until the underside is spotted and rim fully risen, 4 to 7 minutes; use the broiler for the final 1 to 2 minutes only if the top lags, watching continuously.
Rest the oven and steel at maximum heat for 10 minutes, then shape, top, and bake the second pizza. Serve each immediately rather than stacking or holding.
Dinner does not stop at the recipe
Keep recipes, plan meals, and build the grocery list in Kwilt.
Use the recipe here. Get Kwilt when you want the rest of dinner to stay together.
Cook something else
See every recipe
American · Dinner
Herb roast chicken with pan gravy
Dry-brined whole chicken with deeply browned skin, rosemary-sage butter, tender breast and legs, and a silky gravy built from its fond and defatted drippings.
About 14 hr 50 min6 servings
American · Dinner
Slow-braised pot roast
Hard-seared chuck roast braised low and slow with red wine, stock, tomato, thyme, carrots, and potatoes until spoon-tender, then finished with a reduced silky gravy.
About 4 hr 55 min8 servings
American · Dinner
Classic glazed meatloaf
Tender free-form beef-and-pork meatloaf with milk-soaked crumbs, deeply softened aromatics, and two layers of tangy brown-sugar tomato glaze.
About 2 hr 10 min8 servings